Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo was a member of one of New York’s old and established families. She was a descendant of Bernard Rhinelander who in the 1840s was described as “among the richest of the rich” in the city. At the age of thirty-four, Gertrude married Francis William Waldo. The couple had one son, Rhinelander Waldo, who served in the Philippine campaign of the Spanish American War, and was later a controversial figure in New York City government, first as Fire Commissioner and then as Police commissioner under Tammany administrations.